Now Playing: Shadow of Mordor

Shadow of Mordor or ‘Orc Murder Simulator 2014’ is what happens when you take the Assassin’s Creed and Batman: Arkham games and mash them together with a complete edition of The Lord of the Rings. It’s a game about killing orcs. Lots of orcs. It’s probably the best orc killing game ever made. You can put that one on the box, guys.

The game is about a guy called Talion (I think?) who sets out on a mission of revenge because nobody could think of a more interesting motivation. The story of Mordor is one of its weakest components. Talion is a bland, humourless sod, accompanied by a dead elf who pops up on occasion to say something in his serious voice. You also meet a dwarf and some woman, oh and some other bland guy. I don’t really remember. Honestly, the story and characters of Mordor are completely forgettable. Well, that’s not strictly true. The human story and characters are, but I’ll elaborate more on that later.

So let’s get stuck into the best thing about Mordor – the combat. Which is fortunate, because the combat is about 99% of the game. The combat, on a base level, plays out just as it does in Batman. You have attack, evade, stun and counter buttons. Every hit counts towards a combo, and once you chain a few hits together you’ll be able to perform special moves. The combat animations are great, and the fights are bloody and brutal. As you progress you’ll earn experience and skill points which can be used to unlock new abilities. These include the standard health/ammo/focus (slow-mo) upgrades, plus a selection of new or enhanced powers.

Once you’ve unlocked all of these, you’ll have a wide and varied selection of tools at your disposal to murder your way through as many orcs as you please. It’s satisfying and very, very enjoyable. Combining your different skills and abilities, tearing your way through an orc stronghold and watching them flee never fails to amuse. The problem, of course, is that it’s all too damn easy.

But before we get into the difficulty issue, let’s look at the Assassin’s Creed element. Direct combat is a big part of Mordor, but there’s a focus on stealth too. You can sneak about, scale walls and buildings and perform stealth kills. Amusingly, Mordor made me feel more like an assassin than any of the Assassin’s Creed series ever really did, especially when you factor in the ‘intel’ aspect as you uncover information about your target and use it appropriately to give you an edge in a fight.

The myriad of combat and stealth options are fantastic, allowing you to approach every mission in a variety of ways using a wide pool of abilities. It’s a lot of fun, and I never really grew tired of it. However, as I’ve already said, the difficulty is a serious issue. In my 22 hours of game time (you can probably blast through the main story in about 10-12, but you’re looking at about 20-25 if you want to 100%) I only died three times. THREE times.

Right from the start, you’re practically unstoppable in a fight. And as you level up and unlock new skills and upgrades, you only ever grow more powerful. You learn lots of new ways to kill things, which then unlock even more new ways to kill things. By things I mean orcs. Lots of poor, poor orcs. It’s fun, but extremely easy. Even the Warchief fights, which you think will turn out to be really tough ‘boss’ type encounters, aren’t all that hard, even early on. Hell, I killed all 5 in the starting area when I was only about 6 hours in.

Another problem is the lack of enemy variety. There are three, maybe four types of orc in terms of weapons, tactics and type of attack, but they can all be killed in exactly the same manner. If you’re looking for a little more tactical play, like we had in Batman – with different foes requiring different gadgets and approach – then you’ll be disappointed. In Mordor, you can mass execute your way through everything with ease.

So the story is a waste (with a terrible final ‘boss’ fight too) and the combat, although fantastic fun, seriously lacks in challenge. But Mordor has another component, something unique and quite interesting – the Nemesis system. As you progress through the story you’ll gain the ability to ‘brand’ orcs and make them your slaves. There’s this whole system of orc Captains and Warchiefs you can brand and manipulate. It creates new side quests that allow you to play one against the other, or push your own personal ‘favourite’ orc right up through the ranks. It’s enjoyable to mess about with and it’s where the orc personalities really shine.

The human characters of Mordor may be forgettable, but the orcs are great! There’s a lot of different orcs that can pop up, all with unique names, features, weapons, abilities and weaknesses. The VA for them is also great, giving each a distinct personality. Some you ‘kill’ may return, perhaps missing an eye, seeking revenge. You’ll grow attached to some of them and come to loath others. You’ll build your own stories within the game through your interactions with these orcs, which is fortunate considering how dull the actual story is.

But whilst the Nemesis system is certainly interesting, there’s not a lot of depth to it. Once you’ve played one of its side quests (I think there are about 5 types in all) you won’t really want to keep doing them over and over again. It’s also not that hard to get your chosen orcs into the Warchief positions. And when you have a few Captains and Chiefs on your team, it becomes even easier to enslave/kill the rest. And once you’re in full control of the orc ranks, then what? I guess you could kill them all and start over, but what would be the point?

The Nemesis system is also disappointing in the sense that it never really leads anywhere or has any real influence in the story. You’re told several times that you’re ‘building an army’ but you never get to actually see it. Towards the very end of the game you’ll be joined by the Warchiefs you’ve branded, but no Captains or common soldiers. They do very little in a couple of very small fights and then just f**k off. Thanks for the help, assholes.

Imagine for a moment if the Warchiefs were directly tied to the orc strongholds in the game, and by controlling a Warchief you also controlled the stronghold. It could lead to a very cool strategy mechanic whereby you could order a Warchief to assault a rivals stronghold. You could then help the assault by taking down defenders, opening gates etc. Sadly, the most you can do is start a ‘riot’ between two Warchiefs in a little skirmish. I was hoping at the end of the game I’d be involved in a seriously big battle with all my Warchiefs, Captains and all the orcs under their command being involved. It just doesn’t happen. So although the Nemesis system is enjoyable to tinker with, it’s also completely bloody pointless.

Graphically, Mordor looks very good, although some environmental work, particularly in the first area, isn’t great. There are two open world areas, but neither is that interesting to explore or look at and both are mostly the same thing – one just has more grass than the other. In addition to the main story missions and the Nemesis stuff, you have 30 side challenges relating to your three weapons – sword (combat) dagger (stealth) and bow (ranged). Some of these are quite fun, but the majority are quick and forgettable. There are also two types of (worthless) collectibles to track down. Well, one type does give you some text to read, at least. As in Assassin’s Creed, each area has towers (high points) you can scale to reveal collectibles and side missions.

The only other side content in Mordor (and unfortunately the bulk of it) is the Outcast Rescue missions, 24 in all, but once you’ve played one you’ve really played them all. They are repetitive and dull, and will feel like a real grind if you intend to work through them. And that’s about it for side content.

Wow, it sounds like I’m really taking a dump on Mordor, but despite all my issues with it, I still had a lot of fun playing it through. The story may be bleh, the open world dull, the side content repetitive and the combat lacking in any sort of challenge but despite all of that, I never got tired of cutting my way through 50 or so orcs, watching their heads fly as I zipped about between them, totally untouchable like some crazy ORC GOD OF DEATH. Combined with the Nemesis system, the combat creates some fantastic, organic experiences in the open world. It’s just a shame that so many of the supporting components totally fall flat.

6/10